Annealing properties of open volumes in HfSiO(sub x) and HfAlO(sub x) gate dielectrics studied using monoenergetic positron beams

The thin Hf(sub 0.6)Si(sub 0.4)O(sub x) and Hf(sub 0.3)Al(sub 0.7)O(sub x) films, which are fabricated by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition and atomic-layer-deposition techniques, are characterized using monoenergetic positron beams. The results show that positron annihilation parameter is sensitive to change in the matrix structure of amorphous high-k materials and can be used to determine process parameters for the fabrication of high-k gate dielectrics.